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495 thoughts on “Letter to the Prime Minister”

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BK
I cannot imagine a morning without The Dawn Patrol. I peruse the links first and then start going through them, starting with the cartoons. By the end of the day, I have gone through them all and have a much better knowledge of the news than reading all the newspapers, not that I buy even one of the fags.

Thank you very much for your excellent service. Merry Christmas to you and your family. Have a good one.
Puffy.

It costs more to buy a burger at Hungry Jacks than they pay their holiday staff/interns for an hour’s work. Just think on that for a minute.

The Liberal Government takes away our jobs and our pay. These Christmas jobs (or extra hours for current Hungry Jacks employees) are replaced with $4/hour internships. And who pays? We do! They are tax funded so cost this multinational nothing. A whopper rip-off! pic.twitter.com/FZY4qVZBfb

Isn’t it wonderful that Australia gives you a holiday on Xmas day so you can sleep in and not have to find all those fantastic links for us Pubsters. May you, and all at The Pub, have a safe and happy time.

With regard to Robert Gottliebsen’s letter to Bill Shorten on franking credits it says

Some of Boo’s mates are on government pensions and will get their cash franking credits entitlement.

My sister who worked for ATO says she pays income tax on her pension.

If the refund of excess franking credits is abolished, we will both pay tax of $10,500 on our $35,000 taxable investment income. If we were still earning personal income (pre-retirement) of $35,000 each per annum our tax liability would be $3500 each — the difference in tax liabilities ($7000) is not a retirement tax. It is a retirement SUPER TAX!

Boo and his wife have $700,000 work of shares. if they can become eligible for a $1 of Aged pension they can keep their franking credits ie less than $500,000 in shares

For heavens sake! All these well-off oldies whining about missing out on a government handout make me sick. Don’t like Labor’s franking credits plans? Well, don’t structure your retirement income to depend on those credits. Find something else. It’s not compulsory to set up your retirement nest egg in that way.

Many of these whingers would also be the same people who complain bitterly whenever an increase in Newstart is discussed, or who get snarky about sole parents being given priority for daycare places, or the same people who circulate nasty, lying memes about all the goodies refugees allegedly “get”. Which, of course, they don’t get at all, but try explaining that to one of my sisters and her husband, who are eager circulators of this filth.

If I hear much more of “I’ve paid taxes all my life and this is how you treat me” then I might do something i’ll come to regret. First – no-one pays taxes “all their life”. You paid taxes all your working life.That helped pay for the schools and universities and TAFE colleges you attended, maybe for free, if you went to uni before Hawkie reinstated uni fees. It pays for the roads and railways you use, for the pensioner fares that allow you almost free public transport, for the health system you use, for the aged care you will soon need, the concession price prescriptions you take and and for all the freebies you gladly claim via that Commonwealth Seniors Card that even millionaires are able to use.

Sometimes these old people make me ashamed to be the age I am. All I seem to see is greed and a gimmee gimmee mentality from those who are doing very, very nicely.

On Xmas eve 50 years ago some humans did not follow orders and this iconic photo was taken.

Apollo 8’s Earthrise: The Shot Seen Round the World
“Hey don’t take that, it’s not scheduled,” Commander Borman said. Then, like good humans, they grabbed cameras and clicked away.”https://outline.com/A9fgGT

a comment from “Come election 2019, wage growth will matter more to voters than a surplus”, The Guardian

Today’s reading is from the Epistle to the Arsholians, ch 9.

v1 This be an account of that which did occur in the remote province of Ostraya, in the year 2018.
v2 Now a wealthy merchant had died, bequeathing great riches, so that scholars might study Western Civilisation.
v3 And those into whose hands were given these great riches, said one to another, “we must first consult the Simian Primate in this matter.”
v4 For a Simian Primate there was, clad in a red loincloth, which lived in a monastic enclave atop a tree.
v5 And mighty was its ignorance throughout the land, so that it shone like unto a dead mackerel.
v6 Then those who had been given the great riches did hail the Simian Primate saying, “verily, we know thy wit to be flat an it were a plate of stale piss. So we beseech thee, speak unto the great centres of learning with thy leaden tongue and it is meet we supply thee raw onions for thy delectation.”
v7 So the Simian Primate did agree and came down from its tree.
v8 And on the day appointed, did mount its unicycle and rode off to address the scholars regarding Western Civilisation in a great city by the sea, yclept Wollongong.
v9 Yet scarcely had the Simian Primate begun its address with the words, “uh, look, uh, I think, uh, uh,….”than the scholars there assembled fell into a deep and peaceful slumber.

With it comes a quote from an opinion piece Kathrine Murphy wrote on Saturday. She does the usual journalistic thing in her article, saying “politics”, “the political class” and “the political system” when she really means (but can’t bring herself to say) “the government’. All the bad things she lists have happened to or because of the current government, yet she just won’t say that. To be fair, she does end on a positive note for Labor, which may well be the first time a journalist has done that since Rudd was on track to win in 2007.

You’d be forgiven for thinking 2018 was a dismal year in Australian politics, with backstabbing leadership tussles, inaction on climate change, race-baiting scare campaigns and sexism in question time. But in elections across the country, Australians voted in those who campaigned on a progressive platform, rejecting dog-whistling and climate scepticism. Children and teenagers went on strike from school to demand more action on climate change and sexism in parliament was called out by female parliamentarians fed up with the status quo. In the face of rising populism around the world, Australians just aren’t buying it • Australia is lucky. That’s why the ubiquity of stupid in our politics is so infuriating

I would like to take this opportunity to wish every pubster a safe and happy christmas and a peaceful and prosperous new year.

Special thanks to BK and Leroy for the hard work they do to keep us informed all year. Also TLBD, leonetwo, fiona and Joe6pack for bringing us this fantabulous site that maintains our sanity in an insane world (donald trump is potus, tell me that’s not insane).

I don’t know how old this building is or any other factor regarding this issue but I can say one thing – This is what the so called “Red Tape” that is stifling industry is there to prevent. So think about that all you RWNJ’s before you complain.

At least the US Government shut-down has not spoilt one of my favourite sillinesses of Christmas Eve.NORAD Santa Tracker is still operational.
Christmas is not a particularly happy time for me (too many sad things happened), but the fact that air traffic controllers around the world contribute to this little bit of “magic” makes me feel a little happier about the whole day tomorrow, and it looks like it might only get up to 33C – a great relief in some ways.

Waste dumping, controlled and uncontrolled, around Homebush Bay transformed the once bountiful wetlands into ugly tips and polluted waterways. Sydney’s rapid expansion in the 1950s and 60s and the start of the “throw-away” society meant people and industry needed more space to put their waste. By 1970 Wentworth Bay no longer existed and by 1978 most low-lying land had been filled.

Just dropped off my sister after picking up from the airport. On the way to my nieces place she told me of a mortifying moment at work a long time ago. Lucky for her the internet social media thing was not so big back then. I reckon it had great viral potential these days, especially as the audio would be easier to get out there. Well it tickled my funny bone.

The scene .A Coroners court in an un-named city , a murder case, very serious atmosphere, an un-named police officer read on to record the police findings, this police officer ran two words together that were close on the page as they moved on to detailing the finding of the ‘Vaginacologist’. Cue extremely awkward atmosphere , wide eyed family, jaw dropped coroner and a lot of people trying to keep a straight face, un-named police officer doing a Barnaby complexion impersonation. She later received several applications from within the police force for the ‘new position’ at the coroners. The ‘whoops ‘ lovingly recorded on tape for posterity to boot 🙂